HARARE, Feb 20 (NNN-ZIMONLINE) — President Robert Mugabe on Friday appointed the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), one of several commissions meant to open democratic space and reform Zimbabwe?s politics.

Mugabe, whose previous government forcibly closed several independent newspapers while arresting scores of journalists, named the new commission in a government gazette published Friday.

Former state journalist Godfrey Majonga will chair the commission while journalism lecturer and a former editor of the banned Daily News newspaper Nqobile Nyathi will deputise him.

?His Excellency the President is pleased to appoint with immediate effect for a term of five years the following members of the Zimbabwe Media Commission from a list of nominees submitted by the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders of Parliament,? the gazette said.

Other ZMC members Zimbabwe?s former ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, Harare lawyer and journalist Chris Mhike, former Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president Matthew Takaona, former ZBC chief executive officer Mr Henry Muradzikwa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe division head Milicent Mombeshora.

Former members of the board of the government?s Zimpapers newspaper empire Lawton Hikwa and journalist Miriam Madziwa complete the list of commissioners.

Deputy Information Minister Jameson Timba urged the new commissioners to move with speed to implement long awaited media reforms.

?They should now hit the ground and start discharging their duties. They don?t need to be sworn the gazetting is enough,? said Timba.

Meanwhile, the latest report by a US-based media protection group said Zimbabwe has the highest number of journalists in Africa who have been hounded into exile during the past decade and many of them have abandoned journalism as a profession.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the threat of jail has forced at least 48 Zimbabwean journalists into exile since the country?s political crisis began in 2000 compared to just 30 for civil war-torn Somalia.

?At least 48 Zimbabwean journalists have been forced into exile since 2000, most of them in the early half of the decade during sustained harassment by President Robert Mugabe?s government,? said Tom Rhodes, Africa programme coordinator at CPJ.

The figure is higher than second-placed Ethiopia where 41 scribes have fled to other countries to escape government persecution in the past 10 years.

In interviews with CPJ, many of the exiled Zimbabwean journalists have said that it took years for them to re-establish themselves professionally and secure sound economic footings for their families.

?Many had to abandon journalism as a career,? he said in the report titled ?Attacks on the Press 2009?, published last Tuesday.

But the report commended efforts by some exiled Zimbabwean journalists, including The Zimbabwean editor and publisher Wilf Mbanga and SW Radio Africa founder Gerry Jackson, for keeping the momentum going after leaving Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe remains one of the most difficult countries for journalists to practise their profession despite formation of a coalition government by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai 12 months ago.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai undertook in the power-sharing agreement that gave birth to their coalition government to restore democracy in Zimbabwe and to ensure respect for human rights including press freedom.

The former foes also undertook to reform the police and other security arms of government to ensure they respect and uphold human rights.

But the troubled unity government is yet to move on security sector reforms while the army and police continue to exhibit repressive tendencies jeopardising the southern African country?s efforts to recover from a spate of bad publicity over the past decade which affected tourist arrivals. — NNN-ZimOnline

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